Genius Wizard Conceals His Origins

T/N: Edited 10/28/24.

There are different types of begging.

There is a strategy of revealing one’s impoverished life without embellishment, sometimes exaggerating, to induce the sympathy of passersby.

There is also a strategy of showing off various arts to attract people.

The vast majority choose the former.

Not everyone is given the talent to gather crowds with arts such as singing, playing instruments, or acrobatics, and they don’t have the leisure to learn such arts.

I was among them.

Bar the luck of picking up a grimoire, I was an unremarkable fellow.

I had tried practicing a stunt once.

It was when three years had passed since living under the bridge.

Starving and feeling like I couldn’t go on, I tried every trick I could think of, and among them, I practiced juggling to the point where I could be told I was pretty good at it.

However, it seemed that juggling was worth less than a single coin in the Bayel Empire, so it was of no help in generating income.

It’s different now, though.

This is the Frauvian Federation.

I went from being a beggar under the bridge to Benjamin’s disciple.

It means I no longer have to hide the art I’m most confident in, magic.

Whoosh― 

Whoosh― 

Whoosh―

Whoosh―

The four-colored balls soar into the sky one after another, following a trajectory that seems like they might fall at any moment.

At some point, about ten people, including the blonde girl, had gathered around.

Imitating Benjamin’s confident smile, I increased my speed even more.

Perhaps because of that, one of the balls flew forward.

“Oh, oh no!”

“It’s going to fall!”

The young audience members are reacting well.

The rest probably have similar thoughts, even if they don’t say it out loud.

I want to make their jaws drop.

‘[Move]’

I recited the activation phrase in my head.

The black ball that flew out on a trajectory that couldn’t be caught reversed its course the next moment as if hitting an invisible wall and returned to my grasp.

“Huh? What’s that?”

All of the spectators widened their eyes at the same time.

Expectations are said to have the best effect when betrayed in a good way.

It certainly seemed that way.

Now, it was time to show them that I wasn’t just a simple performer.

I took out two more balls from my pocket.

Someone might be able to juggle with six balls, but for me, it’s impossible.

So, I had to ‘levitate’ the balls while juggling.

It became a more splendid spectacle than purely juggling with six balls.

“Magic? Is it magic?”

“Wow….”

“It seems to be the Type-I Magic Spell [Move]. Even so, is it possible to handle those so quickly and delicately?”

As expected of the Frauvian Federation, the center of magic.

The general public seemed to have a basic knowledge of magic, as they quickly saw through the trick.

It was a rather good thing.

The more they knew about magic, the more they would understand how difficult it was to simultaneously manipulate the trajectories of six balls.

The commotion attracted more spectators, and more spectators caused more commotion.

When I was finally surrounded by dozens of people to the point where I couldn’t see my surroundings…

I lowered my arms.

The six balls alone soared into the sky, freely circling the train station, and after a few convergences and divergences, they formed a straight formation and flew back toward me.

And then…

“Hup.”

Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud!

All six balls were neatly placed into the bag I was holding without an inch of error.

After closing the bag, there was only one thing left to do.

I ridiculously bowed as low as possible based on the etiquette I learned from the encyclopedia.

I received a round of applause and a shower of coins.

About ten minutes passed, and when many people had dispersed, I briefly went outside the train station.

I took off the mask and readjusted the hat that had been hiding all my hair.

When I set foot inside the station again, no one recognized me.

While it’s true that the majority of the people from the Bayel Empire have gray hair, not all gray-haired people are from the Empire.

It’s highly risky to assume someone is from the Empire or blindly hate them just because they have gray hair.

Hatred and discrimination are meant to lower others and elevate oneself.

Although it’s easy to get emotions involved, it’s surprisingly a calculative act, so it can’t be actively done if there’s a possibility of being mistaken.

Perhaps the reason people from the Federation avoid making eye contact with gray-haired individuals is also a manifestation of this passive hatred.

It’s not a big deal.

In any case, they’re not inflicting harm.

Compared to what I experienced at the market near the military camp in Leman, I could easily brush this off.

What’s important now is that they don’t recognize me.

I leisurely headed to the ticket office.

“Hello.”

“Ah, yes.”

The ticket clerk let out an obvious sigh.

I’m sure his inner thoughts were something like, ‘the guy with no money is here again without getting tired.’

…But if he thinks I’m the same as I was two hours ago, he’s greatly mistaken.

The clerk spoke as if he was annoyed.

“The train will arrive in an hour. We don’t accept credit, no sneaking into the cargo compartment, and, of course, no free rides.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Huh?”

“This is a ticket office, right? I’m here to buy a ticket.”

Clack!

I neatly stacked the coins in front of the clerk and placed them all at once.

There was quite a variety.

There were pence, shillings, and even pounds. *1

The clerk counted the coins with an absurd expression, and 30 seconds later, he had to let out a hearty laugh.

“Fifteen pounds. Exactly right.”

“Give me a third-class ticket.”

“Haha… Here you go.”

I received the ticket.

“Have a pleasant journey.”

I lightly bowed my head in response and turned away.

“Wow.”

Only then could I be amazed with my peace of mind.

Let’s calculate my earlier transactions.

The mask and six balls cost a total of three pounds.

My total earnings in the tin can were 24 pounds.

“That’s insane…”

It was an encouraging profit.

I had expected good results as I invested all of my remaining money to take on the challenge, but I didn’t anticipate it would be this successful.

Have I ever handled such a large sum of money at once in my life?

I had a whopping nine pounds left even after buying the ticket.

Hmm.

“Ah. I shouldn’t be thinking like this.”

I quickly got rid of those thoughts.

Perhaps because I had fulfilled my desires as a businessman from my days under the bridge so successfully…

…I found myself seriously thinking, ‘Can’t I just keep earning money with this?’

Let’s not get distracted. My dream is still to be a magic scholar…

I’m half joking, but there was another reason why I couldn’t continue this juggling performance.

It lacks sustainability.

About half of the audience were people who had purchased train tickets, but the other half were people who worked at the train station or had come to see others off.

If I sat in the station every day, causing a commotion, the staff wouldn’t take kindly to it, and people’s interest would also diminish.

If the initial surprise and performance were excluded, the simple truth of combining juggling and magic would quickly be revealed.

I have to take the train.

Just as I reaffirmed my conclusion…

The people who had been passing time by talking to each other started getting up one by one and moving towards the tracks.

There was no signal or sound.

What did those people feel?

I found out when I followed them and reached near the tracks.

Thump. Thump.

Vibration.

The vibration transmitted to the soles of my feet was announcing that a huge mass was approaching from far away.

Not long after, a sound could also be heard.

Ssssssssssss―

A sound I had never heard before in my life. According to the encyclopedia, that must be the sound of steam being emitted, but its size and scale were so large that it didn’t feel real.

The memory of seeing a steamship for the first time a few days ago comes to mind.

I was surprised to see how much more advanced it was compared to the sailboat blueprints I had seen in books.

Will it be the same this time?

A moment later, the train started to enter into view from far away.

Chug, chug, chug, chug, chug.
Screech―!

The imposing presence of heavy steel and the smell of coal. The rising white steam.

The volume that filled the empty tracks.

I stared at it without even breathing until the train came to a stop.

Suddenly, I felt a sense of betrayal.

“…Benjamin. You said it was twice as big and ten times as long.”

Unlike length, size *2 should be measured in square units.

Moreover, volume is cubic.

The train in front of me was four times as big and maybe 20 times as long as the one in the encyclopedia.

After presenting the ticket, I boarded the train.

Unlike the magnificence of the exterior, I didn’t feel amazed inside the train.

“……”

I guess all places where people live are the same.

It may also be because it’s third-class, but the boredom and solemnity evident in people’s expressions made me regain my sense of reality as I had been immersed in appreciation.

Fortunately, I was able to sit by the window.

‘What kind of jobs are there near Leslie Station?’

I had been pondering when and to whom I should ask this question, but now that I think about it, it seems like a question I don’t necessarily have to ask.

As expected of the high-density third-class, the conversations of the passengers could be heard vividly, and above all, I could infer from the noticeably darkened fingertips of quite a few people.

Leslie Station.

In other words, there are coal mines in the Leslie province of Oslovya.

T/N

It seems the pence is involved in the story, after all. Bread costing shillings really does imply significant inflation during the war.
It is more appropriate to call this ‘area’ by definition, but size (or scale) is more relevant to how it was expressed. It seems that size there refers to width x height, and length is only involved for measuring the volume of something. This definition may change as we go along, so I’ll play close attention to how this concept is used later on.

Thanks for reading!